US: Harmful Surgery on Intersex Children

Medically Unnecessary Operations Risk Lifelong Suffering

(Chicago, July 25, 2017) – Doctors in the United States continue to perform medically unnecessary surgeries that can inflict permanent harm on intersex children, Human Rights Watch and interACT said in a report released today. Despite decades of controversy over the procedures, doctors operate on children's gonads, internal sex organs, and genitals when they are too young to participate in the decision, even though the surgeries could be safely deferred. The report, "'I Want to Be Like Nature Made Me': Medically Unnecessary Surgeries on Intersex Children in the US," examines the physical and psychological damage caused by medically unnecessary surgery on intersex people, the controversy over the operations inside the medical community, and the pressure on parents to opt for surgery.